Middle of the road radio rock. Completely forgettable. It's not worthy of a 1 on my scale because of some of the pure shite I've listened to before, but there is nothing that sticks out and I can't remember a second of it.

The black metal has been replaced by death metal on this album which will upset a lot of fans. Some tracks sound like Dethklok gone folk while other tracks, like Born To Be Epic, will upset people with the flute breaks which some critics are calling flutestep, or folkstep. A few missteps aside, though, it's a solid Equilibrium album. It won't stand out as one of their greats but it's bedding in the new members well.

It's exactly what should have followed on from Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, except it's 30 years too late. It's far better than their other albums because they were all terrible, but it's nowhere near the level of HNSNSN. But it's a bunch of 50-something punks trying to recapture what made them so great 30 years ago so for what it is, you have to give them credit where it's due, it's exactly what they aimed for.rSure it's not gonna redefine music or reaffirm Discharge's status but it's a decent, pretty solid and consistent album and if d-beat is your thing then it's worth checking out.

It's just Ministry without any restraint on Al's twisted mind. He just doesn't care anymore and it shows. The music is frenetic and unstructured, the electronics are jumbled, and it, for the most part, works out. It's not going to win any awards but it's a fun listen if you want a slightly more unhinged Ministry.

Not many will be aware, but well known Facebook shitposters Drowning Pool are also musicians. Now comes their new album Hellelujah, no memes present but not much else of note either. The band seem content to trudge the same territory over and over, trying to replicate the sound of their breakout album "Sinner", but only die-hard fans are gonna really enjoy this.

Maximum the Hormone re-recorded their ultra-rare (now out of print) 2002 album Mimi Kajiru as a bonus for fans who purchased their live album Deka vs Deka, and the growth in musicianship is clear. Some songs have seen radical changes, such as the crazy breakbeat moments of the new look "Abara Bob", while both Johnny Tetsu Pipe tracks have been merged together for Johnny Tetsu Pipe III. The lack of 2 tracks is a shame but this is a great re-recording for new fans to experience more MTH music, and die-hard fans with all the old music to see how the band have grown in terms of musical ability (if not in maturity) in the past 14 years.

Having heard the whole album (full review http://www.rocksins.com/reviews/fightstar-behind-the-
devils-back/), there is honestly nothing wrong with it. It takes influence from all the old albums
and their other projects: The poppier moments hark back to Charlie's natural ability to write
hooks in Busted, the heavier moments remind one of the darker moments of "One Day Son" and "Be
Human", the electronics take a lot from Gunship, and all that thrown in with pure prog moments and
it just creates the ultimate Fightstar album. Some people may be unhappy at the lack of a
"Damocles" moment, but with tracks like Titan taking that heaviness and throwing in a healthy dose
of melody, they're not really missed.

The old projects do not need to be mentioned here and as such I refuse to refer to them by name. No Devotion stands on its own as one of the post-punk releases of the year. Pure quality throughout. I hope they get the recognition they deserve and are able to stand out on their own merit now.

While the songwriting is more consistent and tighter, it really lacks the urgency and feel of TIAH and Sempiternal, as well as lacking any true stand out songs. TIAH had songs like "It Never Ends" and "Crucify Me" and Sempiternal had such a strong ending with "Hospital For Souls" as well as other great tracks like "Sleepwalking". Throne is the best track on this album but place it on any other album and it would just be another track rather than the main highlight. This isn't to say it's a bad album but it's a definite step back in quality.

It's very Hollywood Undead-esque. Although Epic did write a few HU songs in the past. There's a
couple of decent songs on it but they haven't learned from all the troubles they've been through
in their hiatus. Almost 10 years of trying to release an album, Shifty's drug problems and coma,
the deaths of DJ AM and Rust Epique, you'd think those would help them mature as lyricists but
no.rThe fact they're not trying to be a nu metal band anymore works in their favour, there's a lot
of mainstream rap like moments but it's still firmly in the alternative sphere of hip-hop and I'd
give it a 2/5. It's not TERRIBLE but it's not exactly good either. It's also better than their god
awful first album. I will say that the song "My Place" (originally released in 2010 in one of the
previous aborted album sessions) is the worst song on the album by some distance because of the
gratuitous autotune.

Bullet top their last two efforts here. The songwriting is much stronger and the overall musicianship is back. The main problem Bullet have here, which is something that's plagued their releases for their whole career, has been the fact they slip so easily into a formula. So many of the tracks on this album will follow the same pattern of one big scream in the opening seconds starting the music, which is OK in small doses but once you notice the pattern, it can get quite jarring.

http://www.rocksins.com/reviews/soulfly-archangel-album-review-25364/ for my views on it.

A word to the wise though, unless you're a completionist/fan of the Soulfly instrumentals (like I
am)/want the bonus DVD, avoid the Special Edition of the album. A You Suffer cover (introduced by
Max's kinda annoying grandson) and an alternate lyrics version of Deceiver are all that await you
aside from the traditional instrumental track.

You know what you're getting into if you have any familiarity with the other members' main projects, but there's still some enjoyable moments. It's all very much alt metal/hard rock by numbers and one would hope that in future they'll try to do something JUST A LITTLE BIT different. But don't hold out much hope for that. If you like some plain old inoffensive rock then you'll enjoy this, but for those looking for something a little different, look elsewhere.

I've generally avoided the Filth and only treated them as a running joke in The IT Crowd ("It sounds horrible, but it's actually quite beautiful") but I'm genuinely impressed by this album. Everything works together, the guitars are lethal and the symphonic elements accentuate the live instruments nicely. Dani Filth has a very "love it or hate it" vocal style but it wouldn't be Cradle of Filth without his trademark banshee wailing.

Fantastic album, pretty eclectic and just the band doing what they wanted. The strong presence of funk and blues music may be a bit jarring on first listen but it's a fun and enjoyable listen. These songs will translate well live.

Clean vocals are pretty flat and the guitar tone doesn't seem quite there, but credit to them for even managing to put this out given their location in Kabul, Afghanistan. Issues aside it's some fairly well constructed psychedelic/progressive metal.

It's a fun album, with serious moments but the highlights are when Ice T is anything but. Key point here is the fantastic cover of Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized",d as "Institutionalized 2014". Ice T's ranting over pushy wives, unhelpful customer support and hipsters make this one of my favourite songs of the year, not necessarily for musical quality but for sheer hilarity.

It's not a bad album by any stretch and this is my first tie listening to Arch Enemy after following Alissa's move from The Agonist so there may be much better older albums but for what I know, it's not a bad album. It's not that great either though. There are many moments which seem a little stale/predictable for the melodeath genre and plenty of times in the songs where I think "this is the perfect time for Alissa to come in with some cleans" but nothing and the screams just don't feel right in those spots. Introducing cleans in Arch Enemy would be a risk, yes, but I reckon it could pay off and shake things up a bit.

Remi shows a more commercial oriented and relaxed take on his unique style here and, while it's a competent release, it lacks the aggression of the demos and Polymorphic Code that really made him stand out. While it's understandable that he wants to try new styles out with The Algorithm, one has to hope that this album is just Remi going through the motions and we'll see a return to the heavier side on album #3.

Eths are back with a new frontwoman - viral star Rachel Aspe. The new voice may take some getting used to but overall, for what it is, it's a good showcase of what the band will sound like in future. Considering it's 6/7 old songs I can't rate it much higher though.

How can you not 5 this. The idol J-Pop somehow mixes with the various styles of metal present in this album from thrash to deathcore. Mixing J-Pop and metal has been done before, for evidence check your average moody seinen/shounen anime theme tunes, and of course, Maximum the Hormone. but never quite to this extent.

The vocals might grate for a few people but the musicianship is there, they may not be the most complex riffs but the grooves are there as the next generation of Cavaleras show a more hardcore punk direction to their music.

Yeah it's gimmicky as hell having a grindcore band fronted by a 7 year old girl, but the EP
is actually very musically sound. It's a fun listen and the vocals bouncing between father
and daughter work really well, accompanied by some ridiculous random samples.

With the animation it's a 4.5. Musically still a 4 but a low 4. The music's still great and
gives us proper quality for the series' poppier moments, as well as properly showing off
Brendon Small's vocal capabilities, with him taking on almost every member of the band's
vocal duties as well as countless over characters. The contributions of Corpsegrinder Fisher
along with cameos from Jack Black, Mark Hamill and Malcom McDowell are also fantastic.
Recommended that you watch the movie first though otherwise the soundtrack won't make much
sense to you.

The band has to forsake the speed and aggression that was found on Enslaved in order to bleed in young drummer Zyon Cavalera who's only really had a couple of years' experience behind the kit but he does a very respectable job on this album, where grooves are the name of the game and are very well executed, for example, in "Fallen" and "This Is Violence".

Am I the only one who thinks TALITM was their last truly good nu metal album? Either way this is awesome. I actually think Lullaby for a Sadist is the best track which is funny as this one was written before Head rejoined.

Tis good. The two extra tracks show a bit more variety in their sound than Blood Host and Soul Disintegration had let on and it provides a nice preview of the album, even if the two better tracks won't actually be on the album.

Rage Against the Machine's long awaited 4th album. Nah but seriously although it's a rather obvious rip off in many ways, they still pull it off (unlike certain other bands *cough*A7X*cough*) and it's an enjoyable album.

The Defiled have further developed their sound, and are all the better for it. They still wear their influences on their sleeves at times (like in the Marilyn Manson-esque "Porcelain") but they know how to write a song, with big choruses to match. I think it's now fairer to say they are more industrial than metalcore nowadays but that's just me.rOne potential weak spot for this album is in the drumming, though. Unlike in previous releases where Stitch and The AvD programmed all the drums, they've let new drummer Needles record all the drums himself and while he's a capable drummer (his time in STOMP is testament to his abilities) he might not be suited to this style of music. Oh yeah it fits fine but it's not as good as could be.

Eh. I dig the music hard but the vocals drag everything down a bit too much for it to be really listenable on a regular basis. Maybe give them time and they could improve (after all this is just the debut album).

The black metal elements have become slightly more apparent than in Takasago Army but overall this album continues their progression away from the symphonic black metal scene and into their own oriental extreme style. Fans of the bm output may not enjoy this but others will love it.

Nice little release for those who donated money towards the new album "Daggers". Musically performed pretty well although it sounds like they recorded this after an extensive tour cos Stitch's vocals seem a bit tired.

Immediate reactions are that this is a contender for AOTY and I hope that people realise this and actually buy the album. This is easily capable of being THAT album that breaks the top of the charts in the UK, USA etc. - something we've needed since Slipknot made waves for the nu metal scene over 10 years ago.

Oh god a 1 and a 5 before the album's out. OK I know it's gonna be terrible but don't rate
it just yet. Unless you're rating album art alone in which case don't rate, just tell us the
period jokes already. Seriously, not moaning. Just, if you've got any GOOD jokes about the
album artwork and name (there are good ones out there I've heard them) then out with them.

Not exactly metal as fuck and generally heavy enough to detract certain Bullet fans, so this isn't going to go down too well on either side. Those in the middle will enjoy this album though, and there are plenty of good tracks. Exorchrist does sound like a sub-par Bullet For My Valentine b-side though.

Old school thrash. Lovely stuff. Guestlist is enough reason to give this album a spin, and while not exactly original it's musically tight and is a brilliant piece of thrash metal that Metallica would struggle to conjure up nowadays. Picks: Day By Day, Shock And Awe, Rise and Die, Get It Up (featuring the magnificent Gene Hoglan on drums and The Heathen of Zimmers Hole on vocals among others).

The emerging style of "dub metal" is set to dominate rock and metal airwaves in the next few years, and is likely to be the next mainstream rock medium. Korn have set a high benchmark with The Path Of Totality, and while the genre is definitely capable of improving, this album is set to provide a new gateway and surely prove the doubters wrong. Top tracks: Narcissistic Cannibal, Sanctuary, Bleeding Out.

Great thrash album, the genre's not really my thing (just ask some of the many people I've baffled by saying I know only a handful of Metallica songs) but this is in my top 10 albums for the year for sure.

This album really let me down. After the post-hardcore and alt-metal of The Peaceful Riot and unreleased live favourites "To the Blood" and the Deftones-esque "Say It", one would've hoped that those tracks would have featured on this album. But instead it's an incredibly disappointing English-language Kyo, except without the angst that the pop-rock quartet brought to their unique take on the style.

After the deaths of Beatmaster V in 1996 (shortly after the recording of Violent Demise), Mooseman
in 2001 and D-Roc in 2004 during the recording of this album, it's clear that the remaining
members of Body Count (fleshed out with OT, Bendrix and Vincent Price) didn't have their hearts in
this effort and seemed to just be doing it out of a sense of obligation towards their fallen
bandmates. With Ice T on the other side of the country, matters weren't helped. It all seems like
they lost their ability to enjoy themselves on this album and it wouldn't be until Manslaughter in
2014 when that energy returned.

Kyo take a darker and somewhat more rock-oriented direction in their then-final album, after the success of Le Chemin the previous year. Songs like Contact and Sad Day are way harder hitting than most bands of their ilk, with Sad Day feeling like something many post-hardcore bands wouldn't mind writing. However they'd go more indie with their 2014 comeback album.

1. Decorated 2. Hurt You So Bad 3. Battle Cry 4. Change 5. Drowning -- That should have been the
track list. Had they released Darkhorse as an EP like that, it would have been a 3.5/5 for me. The
problem was they couldn't do an album without excessive filler and macho posturing. Maybe if this
had been an EP, it would have bought them more time to release a credible album and sustain some
success instead of the implosion that happened as a result.

Max must've heard the stuff Ektomorf were doing and figured they'd try something like that, with Soulfly's full on nu metal assault that was "Primitive" being replaced by more thrash leanings. The nu metal aspects still remained and it wouldn't be until "Dark Ages" when things really went back to thrash, but it was a small sign of things to come.

I have to improve this rating, listening to this album while driving down an empty motorway in the middle of the night really lets you properly experience all the facets of the album that make it so great.